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The Angel of the Meridian: Rilke, Translated by Susan McLean

4/2/2019

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Picture
The angel with the sundial, at the angle of the bell tower of Chartres Cathedral, Eure-et-Loir, France. Selbymay [CC BY-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)] A 1974 copy of a 1528 original now found in the crypt.

The Angel of the Meridian
Chartres
 
In the storm that whirls around the strong cathedral 
like one who broods, committed to denial,
we feel we suddenly become more gentle,
more tender, guided to you by your smile,

smiling angel, figure that can feel,
whose mouth was fashioned from a hundred mouths: 
do you not sense at all the way our hours
are sliding from your sundial, which is full

and on which stands at once the day’s whole sum,
quite real, in utter equilibrium,
as if all hours were ripe and valuable?

What do you know, stone creature, of our plight?
And do you with a face more blissful still,
perhaps, hold out your tablet to the night?
 
Rainer Maria Rilke, translated by Susan McLean

L'Ange du Meridien 
Chartres


Im Sturm, der um die starke Kathedrale 
wie ein Verneiner stürzt der denkt und denkt, 
fühlt man sich zärtlicher mit einem Male 
von deinem Lächeln zu dir hingelenkt: 

lächelnder Engel, fühlende Figur, 
mit einem Mund, gemacht aus hundert Munden: 
gewahrst du gar nicht, wie dir unsre Stunden 
abgleiten von der vollen Sonnenuhr, 

auf der des Tages ganze Zahl zugleich, 
gleich wirklich, steht in tiefem Gleichgewichte, 
als wären alle Stunden reif und reich. 

Was weißt du, Steinerner, von unserm Sein? 
und hältst du mit noch seligerm Gesichte 
vielleicht die Tafel in die Nacht hinein? 

Rainer Maria Rilke

Susan McLean has published translations of Latin, French, and German poetry in Arion, Transference, Literary Imagination, Subtropics, and elsewhere. Her book of translations of the Latin poet Martial, Selected Epigrams (U. of Wisconsin P, 2014), was a finalist for the PEN Center USA Translation Award.  Her own books of poetry include The Best Disguise and The Whetstone Misses the Knife.  She lives in Iowa City, Iowa.
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